The Diabolical Mr Tiddles

The Diabolical Mr Tiddles

By Tom McLaughlin 

 

One month ago, I asked my lovely twitter followers what their current favourite children’s book was  and @QcqttQ recommended “The Diabolical Mr Tiddles” by Tom McLaughlin (@_TomMcLaughlin on Twitter).

I have to confess that neither my kids nor I (we each have our own childrens’ book libraries as you can see below) had this book.

    

So, since the title really aroused my interest, I decided to order it and review it.

I was not disappointed… Julian, 6, Noah, 4, and I, discovered the book for the first time together and it was their first choice every night after that for at least two weeks!

Concours Twitter – Twitter Competition

À gagner : une copie signée du livre “Le pacte des bouffons” d’Estelle Demontrond-Box.

Le gagnant sera choisi au hasard sur Twitter parmi les RT du message suivant:
“À gagner, une copie signée du livre ”Le pacte des bouffons” http://wordzsandwich.wordpress.com/ @estellebox”

Ce concours aura lieu du 17/01/2012 au 31/01/2012.

Pour de plus amples informations sur ce livre, visitez la page “Le pacte des bouffons” sur ce blog http://wordzsandwich.wordpress.com/histoires-de/ ou la page de lulu.com http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/le-pacte-des-bouffons/4361689?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2.

Bonne chance à tous!

x

Estelle

 

Win a signed copy of the book “Le pacte des bouffons” by Estelle Demontrond-Box.

The winner will be selected at random amongst the Twitter’s RTs of the following message:
“Win a signed copy of “Le pacte des bouffons” http://wordzsandwich.wordpress.com/ @estellebox”

This competition will take place between the 17/01/2012 and the 31/01/2012.

For more information (in French) about the book, please visit the “Le Pacte des bouffons” page on this blog http://wordzsandwich.wordpress.com/histoires-de/ and/or the lulu.com page http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/le-pacte-des-bouffons/4361689?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2.

Good luck!

x

Estelle

What is Twitterature?

 

What is Twitterature?

In 2009, two young University of Chicago students, Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin, wrote a book entitled “twitterature”, a term they coined and which they defined as being an “amalgation of ‘twitter’ and ‘literature’; humorous reworkings of literary classics for the 21^st century intellect, in digestible portions of 20 tweets or fewer”.
They turned 76 classic texts into twitterature, most pieces narrated by the main character of the original text but adapted to the twitter world. This is what they thought Hamlet, Dante or Oedipus could have tweeted:
From Hamlet: WTF IS POLONIUS DOING BEHIND THE CURTAIN???
From Dante’s Inferno: I’m havin a midlife crisis. Lost in the woods. Shoulda brought my iPhone.
From Oedipus: PARTY IN THEBES!!! Nobody cares I killed that old dude, plus this woman is all over me. Total MILF.

However, those were never published on Twitter which I find very disappointing since it defeats the purpose and the magic of twitterature.

 According to the online Urban Dictionary, “Twitterature” is a noun used to describe a “written work (or body of works) of a particularly humorous, clever, and/or poignant nature, and artfully stated in 140 characters or less”, i.e. which can be tweeted on Twitter in the given maximum number of 140 characters.
In French and according to the Institute of compared twitterature (Institut de twittérature comparée, Bordeaux-Québec), it is the “ensemble des textes littéraires publiés dans Twitter sous forme de gazouilllis”.
It is a new way of writing, with new constraints, new spellings, new codes. A twitter haïku movement is born. And anybody can enter the twitterature sphere.

The Green Man vs L’homme en vert

 

 

 

Last year, I was delighted when a writer, Nick Foulger, contacted me to get a quote for the translation of his first comic book aimed at 8-12 year-old readers.

I had always wanted to focus more on literary translation but I have found it extremely hard openingthe right doors and find an exciting project (more on that in a future paper). So this was my opportunity. Moreover, this project was right up my alley since I have always been passionate about children’s literature, having written a book for 6-10 years old, stories for under 6s, and having two young children myself.

So, yes, I was over the moon, especially when Nick accepted my quote and gave me the job.

As Miranda’s mum would say: “such fun!”

And I was even more enthusiastic when I got to read the comic book: “The Green Man” is the first in a series of comic book adventures for Professor Thomas Swift. It is unique in being made up entirely of photographs rather than being drawn. With the magic of digital editing and by creating a photo-realistic model world, Nick Foulger brought the popular children’s toy Playmobil® to life. The creative process was original and fascinating. I really admire Nick’s patience, commitment and skills in putting this project together (each picture can take up to a day’s photo editing and it took more than 320 days to create the book!). If this is not passion, I do not know what is!

8 useful tips to learn a foreign language

 

8 useful tips to learn a foreign language

That’s it! You have made up your mind: you are so going to learn a new language!
But where and how do you start?
Here are 8 very useful tips to help you with your learning:

1) DARE: the key to learning a new language is to DARE to make mistakes and have fun with the language! It doesn’t matter whether you make mistakes – because making mistakes is how you learn. It is part of the learning process. You can’t always get it right first time round and you know what? It’s ok! The more you will try and dare, the better you will get!
And at the end of the day, it is better to say a sentence with mistakes than not to say anything at all!

2) READ: as much as you can and aloud when possible. And not only in your own native language – try and read in the language you are learning, whether it is children’s books (why not?), comics, recipe books, magazines, food or cosmetic labels – the resources are endless! Most libraries have a foreign languages section and even children’s books in foreign languages! So, why not give it a go?

3) WRITE YOUR OWN PHRASEBOOK: try and write your own phrasebook – not anybody’s but one with the phrases / sentences that YOU will need or are interested in. An alphabetical notebook is also really useful: you can write the words you have learnt, from your native language to the language you are learning (to speak) and vice-versa (to understand).

4) WATCH & LISTEN: you can watch TV (digital TV offer some foreign channels), movies in the foreign language with subtitles, news or cartoons! You can also explore music / songs in your chosen language and try and understand the lyrics of songs that you particularly like.
I would also strongly recommend buying language learning books sold with CDs or cassettes.

Redcurrant and red wine sauce – Sauce aux groseilles et vin rouge

A beautiful sauce to accompany your duck, beef or game meat
Une délicieuse sauce pour accompagner votre canard, votre boeuf ou votre gibier

- 2 shallots
- 1 clove of garlic, pureed
- Fresh thyme, finely chopped
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- 2 tbsp of red balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 glass of red wine
- 20 g of butter
- 60 g of redcurrant (or 4 tbsp of redcurrant jelly)

- 2 échalottes
- 1 gousse d’ail écrasée
- Thym frais haché
- 6 tomates cerises
- 2 cs de vinaigre balsamique rouge
- 1/4 de verre de vin rouge
- 20 g de beurre
- 60 g de groseilles (ou 4 cs de gelée de groseilles)

In a pan, on medium heat,  put the shallots, the garlic, the thyme and the tomatoes (cut in halves) and cook for a few minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and the red wine. Finally, add the butter and redcurrants and reduce for 5-10 minutes.
Mettre les échalottes, le thym et les tomates (coupées en deux) dans une casserole à feu moyen,  et faire cuire pendant quelques minutes. Ajouter le vinaigre balsamnique et le vin rouge. Finalement, ajouter le beurre et les groseilles et faire réduire pendant 5-10 minutes.

Enjoy!
Régalez-vous!

Observing Michelle

Je suis super fan de…
I am a super fan of…

Michelle ou @michmski, une jeune américaine expatriée à Paris fan de saut à la corde extrême :
Michelle a.k.a. @michmski, a young American chick who moved to Paris and who loves extreme jump roping:

 

et qui tient un blog http://observingparticipant.wordpress.com/about/ mais surtout, qui publie des vidéos hilarantes et pleines d’esprit, dont voici un exemple :
and who has a blog http://observingparticipant.wordpress.com/about/, but better still, who posts hilarious and witty videos. Here is an excellent example:

La langue française en un simple mot. Apprenez-le et vous pourrez vous sortir de toutes les situations.
 “The French language can be boiled down to one simple word. Learn to say it, and you hold the keys to French”.

Vous pouvez aussi la suivre sur Twitter.
You can also follow her on Twitter.

Bullying ou le harcèlement scolaire

Over the years, I have found myself faced with the difficulty of having to translate the word “bully” in an educational context.

When I moved to England and was made aware of the extent of the phenomenon through the media, my translator’s mind started ticking … Bullying was also the central theme of my first book “Le pacte des bouffons”. I had to find words to describe a “bully” in French but was never entirely satisfied with the result (“bourreau” still seems a bit too medieval!).
The matter was then made worse and my mind ticked even more…

So I browsed and read and asked many questions…

Though the word “bully” is commonly and often used in English, the French language does not seem to offer a “perfect” equivalent which would convey the same meaning, have the same connotations, or be part of the same register. Also, this subject is often discussed and tackled in countries such as the UK, Australia, the United States, Japan and Canada for example, with campaigns, debates and many books. In France on the other hand, it seems to me that up until recently, the subject was too often avoided or overlooked. This could explain why there is no word commonly used in French to describe a “bully”.